Stargazing
by adriadewinter
Summary: Emma thinks of home on a starry night.
1. Chapter 1: Stargazing

**Disclaimer: So I don't own any OUaT characters, but I'd like to! **

**Also, if you think I'm doing something really cool, or you just think its crap (oh heavens no she is ruining that character!) whatever, send me a message or review—I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading!—Adria**

Emma looked up at the star-filled sky as she guarded the campsite. Her shift was almost over, and as it had been a quiet night, she allowed herself to relax when she noticed Mulan heading over to trade places. _No moon tonight, _she thought to herself, _wait. That means that we have been here nearly a month already. _What with alternating attacks on Cora and "strategic withdrawals," as Snow called them the days had all blurred together.

She sighed as Mulan sat next to her and tore her gaze from the sky looking across at the Asian warrior. While they were not as close as she and Aurora had become, Emma trusted Mulan with her life, and believed that given time, perhaps they would be good friends too. She looked back up at the sky, but soon lowered it again and Mulan turned to her questioningly; usually the blonde was swift to get to bed and was halfway gone before Mulan had even sat down.

"They are all different here." At Mulan's raised eyebrow Emma continued clarifying, "The stars I mean. I've looked for the constellations we have back home but they just aren't there." She drooped her head and pulled her knees to her chest trying desperately not to cry. _This is all too much._

Mulan was unsure what to do to calm Emma down; she'd rarely seen her upset and the times she had, were easily fixed by getting rid of whoever was upsetting her at the time, but in this case… "Can I assist you, Emma?"

Emma looked back at the sky and Mulan saw tears streaming down her face. "When I lived in Boston, I never saw the stars, so when I moved to Storybrook I was shocked by how beautiful it was. It only took a few weeks to figure out that the best place to stargaze was in the Mayor's backyard." She grimaced at some unpleasant memory, and paused before continuing, "Every full moon after…that, we watched the stars together, and the last time the moon was new, we traced every constellation we could find before we…" She stopped and shook her head. "God, I miss it." This time Mulan heard the sobs as Emma pulled her knees in tighter.

This was even worse than before, the warrior had never dealt with something like this since, well, since the night Aurora had mourned Phillip. _Entirely Different! _At least she'd know how to help her, but Emma…? _Oh Snow asked Rory questions to calm her down! _"You must miss spending time with your son like that. Missing one's family is always hard, I know."

"Henry? Of course I miss him, but I would never keep him up to look at the sky on weeknights. I meant Regina and I." Despite her internal surprise, Mulan kept her face indifferent and set her arm on Emma's shoulder remembering Snow having done that as well. Emma looked at her, face suddenly skittish, "Please," she set her arm on Mulan's to show her sincerity. "Please don't mention it to Snow. She…she wouldn't understand."

"You have my word of honor. I will not tell a soul unless you ask me to."

Smiling in thanks, Emma returned to her tent for the night. As she lay down she looked up one last time at the unfamiliar sky. _I swear. I'm coming Regina; I'll get home to you and Henry as soon as I can._

Regina and Henry were lying out on her back lawn tucked into blankets as they watched the sky. James had had to deal with Spencer again, and had left Henry with Regina for the night. "So Mom, you and Emma used to do this all the time and you never told me?"

"We weren't sure how you would react, Henry. Remember, you were so sure I was evil, so we decided to wait a while before telling you. I wish we'd said something now though…" She drifted off as her eyes welled with tears thinking of the blonde—stuck in a dangerous world with no way yet of coming back.

Henry, noticing her tears, hugged her close saying "Don't worry Mom. Emma's smart! Her and Snow are going to get home, I know it!" She pulled him closer, and they stayed like that until Henry's rhythmic breathing told her that the boy was now asleep. She carried him upstairs and tucked him into bed. Turning toward the window, she gazed up at the stars once more before going to her own room as well. _Please Emma, hurry. We…I need you._


	2. Chapter 2: Sunrise

**Disclaimer: So I don't own any OUaT characters, but I'd like to!**

**A.N.: So people really wanted a continuation of this, so here it is. Not stellar, but I hope it satisfies. Cheers!**

**Part 2: Sunrise**

When Henry told James about Regina and Emma, he'd been left speechless for a solid five minutes. Henry wasn't too surprised by that because really, James wasn't exactly the one who you went to if you needed to write a speech. But when James realized how calm Henry was about the news, he calmed down quite a bit. And honestly, having Regina's help in town was helpful, not to mention how nice it was to eat home-cooked meals instead of takeout every night. Despite this new (_Was it friendship? My wife's step-mother as my daughter-in-law… No messed up relationships in this family are there. Nope, none at all…_) relationship, James was reluctant to tell her the plan he had just finalized with Henry.

Using the fairy dust that the Dwarves had mined, Mr. Gold was going to open a portal to the Enchanted Forrest, but the timing had to be precise. Gold had mentioned something about seasons, stars, and magical times of day, but when pressed had refused to say anything further. _Typical of him! Just when knowing could have been most helpful._

Using the dust, the portal would be opened in James' living room just as the sun set on the first night of the next full moon. Which, luckily enough, was tomorrow night. And, surprise surprise, Henry had been listening at the top of the stairs and was now insisting that Regina be told about the portal so she could be present when the others returned. He kept saying something about true love and happy endings. James hoped not, but anything was possible, and if his daughter was going to be happy, James was willing to put up with Regina.

But, this moment was James' and his family's reunion. They deserved at least the night together without dealing with the "future in-laws." _Maybe if I told him that her magic might counter the spell… Worth a shot._

**Next Night**

James, Gold, and Henry were all gathered in the living room waiting for the moon to completely rise. Last minute, as usual, Gold had dropped the bomb that someone had to go into the portal from this side to bring them back. _Lovely._ Of course that meant James had to be ready to go through the portal as soon as it opened. He'd then have exactly five hours to bring Emma and Snow back through before it closed and he was trapped as well. The portal would open near them, but if they didn't know it was there they might never find it, and portal opening was not an exact science, so they might be anywhere within a 2 mile range.

"It's time, James. The portal will open in 5, 4, 3, 2…" Gold snapped his fingers and a whirlpool opened in front of him. "and here we are dearies! Make sure to get back in time. It would be horrible if the _entire_ Charming family was stuck over there now wouldn't it?"

James ignored Gold and was walking toward the portal when Henry ran up to him and gave him a hug. "Be careful now, Gramps! And bring Mom home safe for me now okay?" James hugged the boy back and said one last thing as he headed through the portal.

"Don't worry, I will always find them."

**4 Hours and 58 Minutes later**

By this time, Henry was practically running back and forth in front of the portal. Gold simply sat in the largest armchair with his legs crossed levitating things to pass the time. _It's probably a good thing that Snow isn't back yet because she would be appalled by what that boy is doing to the carpeting right now. It would have been nice for James _not _to have pushed the time limit to the extreme—Belle had mentioned something about having tea together tonight, but _that _wasn't going to happen now was it. Curse these Charmings and their problems!_

Right on cue, James burst out of the portal holding both Snow and Emma's hands closely followed by an Asian warrior in full garb carrying a girl in a purple dress. "You're late, dearie. I thought I told you I had plans for tonight."

"Cora decided to make some trouble as we were leaving, and" looking to snow to make sure he got the name right, "Aurora got hurt. Can you help her before you go?"

Gold got up from his seated position and looked at the girl. The warrior held her closer as if unsure whether to trust him or not; he leaned over the unconscious girl anyways. After a few moments and a few muttered words, "she should be fine by morning, now if you'll excuse me, I have a better place to be." Limping a little, Gold left the house, slamming the door as he left.

Meanwhile, Henry was busy giving his mother and grandmother hugs and pummeling them with questions. Emma answered a few but kept looking around, and Snow turned to her "You know, Cora couldn't have come through the portal with us. You can relax now Emma." Emma glanced over at Mulan who was laying aurora down on the couch, holding her hand and gritted her teeth.

"Uh, Snow. I uh have something to say, and you probably won't like it. It's about Regina and I, we uh we're…" She stopped, waving her hands as if it would get her point across better while Snow's eyes widened and she stepped back a pace about to open her mouth when Henry piped up.

"It's ok Mom, James and I know you and Regina are together. We're both cool with it though." Snow looked like she was about to explode when James stepped up and held her hand.

"You should go see her Emma. She's really helped us the past month; I'll talk to your Mom." He smiled down at her and squeezed her hand. That was all it took, and in moments, Emma was out the door sunning down the street. The moon was down but just a hint of the dawn was peeking over the horizon as Emma raced down each street towards the Mayor's mansion and Regina.

Regina was already up. Not knowing about Emma's safety had given her nightmares, and at 5 a.m. she'd decided that it wasn't really worth it to try to get back to sleep again. She'd just had her first cup of coffee when she heard the knocking on her door. _Who in their right mind would be at the door now? I swear if it's Henry and he had another nightmare because James did something dumb, I'm gonna have serious words with him later. _She walked to the door and yanked it open expecting to see Henry there.

When she saw Emma standing there breathless, she completely collapsed and Emma caught her before she hit the ground. She carried her into the living room and set her on the couch before running to the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water. Regina was sitting up with her head on her hands crying when she returned. "It was so real… Emma, where are you?"

"Well I was in the kitchen getting you some water, but now I'm standing in the living room… What? Look I know my clothes are dirty but honestly there weren't any Laundromats over there so cut me some slack." As she started speaking, Regina looked up, shock covering her face and she began to stagger towards the blonde woman, hand stretched out towards Emma's face.

"It's you! You're back. You're really back! Emma!" Emma reached out her hand to caress Regina's face as Regina wrapped her arms around her pulling her close and resting her head on the blondes shoulder. "I missed you so much!"

"I know, I know." Emma ran her hands through Regina's hair "I missed you too. But, I am _not _leaving now and I am going to spend every moment I can here with you." She pulled back and kissed Regina—softly at first but running her hands through the queen's dark hair she was deepening it quickly. That is until Henry opened the door and walked in.

"Okay we are obviously going to have to set some ground rules for you two. Especially if I'm going to be living here with you 'cause I love you both, but that's just not something I want to see. At least not yet. Give me a little time okay?" Emma leaned back reluctantly and turned to her, _their, _son.

"As long as you're okay with it. I want this family to work out okay, Henry?" Looking over at Regina, "and you've been up all night, so you should try to get some sleep." Henry's eyebrows rose slightly and Emma rolled her eyes. "We're just going to go outside and talk. Jeeze it's gonna be like having Snow around all the time… Off to bed with ya kid!" Henry nodded and went upstairs to his old room as Emma took Regina's hand and led her outside. As they lay down on one of the lawn chairs, Regina turned towards Emma.

"Emma?"

"Yes?"

"I gather this means you told Snow too, hmm? Is she okay with it?"

"She is going to have to deal, cause family or not I love you, and there is nothing she is going to do that will tear us apart okay?" Regina's eyes welled up with tears and she snuggled closer to Emma and squeezed her hand. Emma pulled her closer in response, and they both held each other close as they watched the sun rise together on the morning of a bright new day.


End file.
